Early morning earthquake shakes Dillon

DILLON, Mont. - An early morning earthquake shook Dillon and we were alerted by viewers just after 7 a.m. Monday.

We immediately confirmed the 3.6-magnitude quake through the U.S Geological Survey.

Monitors said the earthquake was centered about 8 miles north of Dillon.

Scientists at Montana Tech said they received reports from as far east at Ennis and as far west as Salmon, Idaho.

Dillon resident Leonard Pnakovich said he was standing in his trailer when he felt it rock back and forth shortly before 7 a.m.

"I felt this little bit of a wave and it came up like that it was a little crisp, it went past me, and I thought, 'What is that?," said Pnakovich.

He showed NBC Montana where he was when he felt the quake.

"I had some cups, coffee cups on the wall here and they just kind of tinkled a little bit and moved a little bit," said Pnakovich.

Pnakovich isn't the only one who noticed the ground shake.

"My whole trailer home shook," said Dillon resident Elida Dugan. "And you could hear it rumble and it almost just vibrated up through my feet then through the house."

"It was just kind of a big rumble," said Dillon resident Reica Anderson. "Like you're on a boat, like when a wave hits and you just kind of go sideways."

At Montana Tech, specialists received phone calls from more than 25 people near Dillon about the quake.

Director of Earthquake Studies Mike Stickney said the earthquake got as high as a magnitude of 3.9.

"It's one of those that rattles the windows and wakes people up," he said. "But it would be very unlikely for it to cause any sort of damage."

Stickney said they recorded at least two aftershocks of Monday's earthquake with lower magnitudes.

"There's some minor activity following it, but nothing that, so far, has been large enough for people to have noticed," said Stickney.

As for Pnavovich, he said this earthquake reminded him you can never predict what will come next.

"Makes you conscious of the natural world around you, you never know," he said.

Stickney told NBC Montana this is the strongest earthquake Dillon has seen in nine years. In July of 2005, Dillon felt an earthquake with the magnitude of 5.6 and has been feeling aftershocks ever since.

Stickney said shortly after the 2005 earthquake, they installed a seismic monitoring station in Dillon to record the aftershocks.